ASTK12329U SUMMER: Crisis
Diplomacy

A tsunami in the Indian Ocean, an earthquake on Haiti, a
kidnapping in Colombia, a pirate attack outside African Horn, a
financial crisis in Europe, an armed conflict in Ukraine and a
violent attack by Boko Haram in Nigeria.

In all these cases, and in many more, diplomats are involved in
a variety of ways. Diplomatic crisis management, or crisis
diplomacy, concerns sense-making (what is the crisis all about?),
decision-making (making critical choices on the basis of a minimal
level of information), meaning making (explaining the crisis to all
relevant stakeholders), and learning (preparing for new
crises).

Sometimes crisis diplomacy takes place in a vacuum. There may
not be partners with which to coordinate or counterparts with which
to negotiate. Sometimes crisis diplomacy involves cooperation with
private partners, such as business organizations, and civil society
groups. In yet other cases, crisis diplomacy unfolds in highly
institutionalized settings, such as NATO, UN and the European
Union.

In this summer school we are interested in studying:

Whether crisis diplomacy has become the norm rather than the
exception in international relations

The different kinds of theoretical tools that can be applied to
study diplomatic crisis management

A number of cases in which crisis diplomacy has been applied in
all kinds of different settings

The summer course is organized by the Department of Political
Science in close cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Teaching during the first week (18.-21. August 2015) takes place in
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whereas individual supervision on
the written assignment takes place at the Department of Political
Science during the second week (24.-28. August 2015).

The lecturers are academics from Denmark and abroad as well as
practitioners from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Lectures during
the first week will take place from 09.00-18.00 all four days.

The summer course is in English with both bachelor and
master-level students as its target group.

The maximum number of students that can be admitted is
60. Once admitted, participation is compulsory.

3. Motivation and program

After the end of the Cold War, Ministries of Foreign Affairs
around the globe started to rethink their role in international
affairs. It was generally proclaimed that we had finally reached
“The end of history”, meaning that the competition between major
ideologies had ended. “Security” as a goal of foreign policies
could no longer take the position as being the primary
objective of all diplomatic behavior. Time had apparently come to
turn the hierarchy of foreign policy objectives up-side down.
Soft-power became the rule of the game and the classical Ministry
of Foreign Affairs was downgraded from being a ministry in its own
league to becoming just another average institution in public
administration.

However, as it turned out, the end of the cold war was not the
end of history, and the beginning of “the long peace”. Rather, it
was the beginning of a period in which perceived risk, insecurity,
uncertainty and vulnerability rose to unprecedented levels. The end
of the cold war to a large extent removed the fear for atomic
apocalypse, but it also opened another arena for all sorts of
complex problems that called for action – international crime,
cyber-warfare, climate change, new forms of terrorism, financial
upheaval, pandemics, migration, environmental degradation etc..
There have always been threats around – technological failure,
fires, floods, riots etc. - but during the cold war, these threats
were overshadowed by the fear for nuclear war. After the cold war,
this shadow had disappeared, highlighting that the sources of human
beings’ vulnerable are many. In addition, the development of new
technologies and globalization also spurred increased levels of
interconnectedness across the world making all of us more
vulnerable to world affairs.

One could argue that we live in a risk-society in which
prevention from crises is nearly impossible. This leaves us with
the idea that crisis-management – the set of activities aimed at
minimizing the impact of crises – is more important than ever. We
cannot avoid crises, but when they are here, we have to invent ways
in which we can live with them.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs comes in as a crucial actor in a
country’s attempt to prosper and develop in a world where crises
have become routine business. In this summer school the overall
objectives are

To conceptually and theoretically come to a better
understanding of what crisis-diplomacy is, and why, and how, and
with which effects it has come to play a central role in diplomatic
practice

To empirically investigate how crisis diplomacy works in
practice in a Danish context and well as on the ground in various
locations of the world.

To critically evaluate perceived risk and the role played by
crisis diplomacy in meeting the general demand for security,
predictability and order.

To draw lessons from private sector crisis-management and
discuss their applicability in foreign affairs.

With a view to realizing these objectives, the summer school is
thematically dived into six sections:

Overview of the Danish foreign service, its organization and
practice

Crisis management theory

Crisis psychology

Private actors in crisis diplomacy: NGOs, business and
media

Crisis-diplomacy through cooperation

Crisis diplomacy in practice: war, natural and humanitarian
disasters, international crime, and clashes of
cultures.

A guiding pedagogical principle is to combine the research-based
teaching of scholars from various faculties with the practical
insights from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

With these themes and pedagogical considerations in mind, the
preliminary program for the first week takes the following
form:

Crisis diplomacy and international cooperation: the Ukraine case
(MFA)

Student presentations

Crisis Management at national and European level, an applied
model

(Magnus Ekengren, Försvarshögskolan, Stockholm)

The Media and Crises

(Mark Ørsten, professor University of Roskilde)

Student presentations

Wrap-up, conclusions, exam etc.

(Martin Marcussen, University of Copenhagen)

During week 35, individual and group supervision will be offered
as a preparation of the final exam paper (location: Department of
Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5).
Further details will follow on the course web-site on Absalon.

The summer course will be executed in English and international
students as well as students from other Danish universities can be
enrolled. There is, in principle, a flexible upper-limit as regards
the number of students that actively follow the summer course. A
max of 60 persons would be ideal, though.

As regards the level of the students attending the course,
preference is given to bachelor and master students. However,
PhD-students with a specific interest in crisis-management,
small-state diplomacy, international cooperation, foreign policy
analysis and administrative reform can also attend.

5. Relevance of course

This summer course is particularly relevant for students who aim
to acquire a profound understanding of new tendencies in modern
diplomacy. Such an understanding is a good starting point for
students who aspire to work professionally in private or public
organizations with strong international links.

The course helps the student to better understand how the
national foreign service is structured and how it deals with a long
series of challenges in cooperation with national as well as
international actors. It sheds light on the conditions for modern
diplomacy and how small-state diplomats work in a complex,
internationalized and politicized context characterized by
institutional stability as well as abrupt changes.

6. Competency description

It is assumed that all students are heavily interested in
diplomacy and international relations.

This is a very intensive and demanding course that requires
considerable preparation. During the course, there will be no time
for reading the course material as a result of which everything
should be read in advance (All readings, except from two basic
books, can be downloaded from the restricted-access course
web-site). In addition, during the course all students will be
expected to contribute actively in class discussions as well as in
teams presenting case studies and key texts from the reading lists.
More concrete instructions will be sent to all students that sign
up for the course.

Since the lectures are partly given by university researchers
and partly by professional diplomats, the students should be
willing to and prepared for engaging in constructive dialogue with
practitioners.

Dekker, Sander and Dan Hansen (2004), Learning under Pressure:
The Effects of Politicization on Organizational Learning in Public
Bureaucracies, Journal of Public Administration Research and
Theory, 14(2): 211-30.

This summer course will
consist of a combination of academic lectures given by university
professor from Denmark and abroad, lectures given by practitioners
in the field (diplomats) and other external speakers. You will be
required to make small presentations in class, either alone or
together with other students.